Reality

[Yugen]

I am reading Keiji Nishitani's Religion and Nothingness (for about the fifth time since I don't understand it). Nishitani was a member of the Kyoto School of Philosophy. His definfition of reality is beautiful, and for me, encompasses our practice..... I wanted to share it with you. What are your reactions?

“....a great harmony among all things in the universe that brings them into being and sustains them in mutual dependence and cooperation, a mystical order that rules over all things so that God can be seen in the most trivial of things. In other words, reality constitutes that perspective whereby we can see within each individual thing, in its course of changes and ultimately its inevitable death, its essential relationship and harmony with all other things in the universe. Reality realizes itself in us when we not only see the universe according to this perspective, but actively take it up in our practices of living, behaving and becoming a harmonious being in relationship with all other things..."

Note that Nishitanti acknowledges the existence of God (he follows his teacher Nishida Kitaro's definition of God: 'the spirit of unity at the center of the universe').... this is interesting in light of Gustav Ericsson's comments in the special zazenkai this week that his relationship to Christianity was eased when he focused on reframing the use of language in his interpretation of concepts.

This is amazing stuff.

Deep bows
Yugen